Bad translations - posted at 11:41

This semester in a Gender and Religion class, we had an expert on what the Bible has to say about homosexuality come in and speak to us. What he had to say I found really interesting, and I must say that the case that he delivered supported what I've felt along - that the Bible delivers little to no basis for condemning homosexuality. Moving right on in:

The New Testament:
Romans 1:26-27 does condemn it, but it is the only place in the New Testament that it is singled out for condemnation. However, in this passage, the following assumptions are clear: homosexuality was associated with cultic prostitution, was a choice rather than innate, and was a manifestation of insatiable lust. Most importantly in this case, it was assumed that homosexual sex was a result of idolatry. Such assumptions are, at best, questionable today.

There are two other places that are thought to refer to homosexuality (I Cor 6:9-10, I Tim 1:8-11), but if you look at the original Greek text, they may not actually be condemning homosexuality at all. Both of these passages are a laundry list of unacceptable behaviors, and what is thought to be homosexuality is never singled out or emphasized in any way.

Specifically, in the Corinthians passage, 'male prostitutes' and 'sodomites' are mentioned in the list. Male prostitutes is translated from the word malakoi, which means, literally, 'soft.' When applied to a male, it can mean 'fat,' 'weak' (could mean physically or morally weak), 'effeminate,' or 'female weakness,' - it never specifically means the homosexual.

Sodomites is translated from the word arsenokotai. The problem with this word is that it is found in very few places in any other Greek texts, ancient or no, so translators actually don't know what it means. However, because of juxtaposition (it's right next to what is usually translated as male prostitute, who would probably be the passive partner), it's translated as 'one who goes to bed with a male' and is interpreted as the active partner in sex. This logic is faulty because no where else in the passage is juxtaposition used to link two words in the passage. After all, fornicators and idolaters are together, as are the greedy and drunkards. Thieves and robbers, which you would expect to occur next to each other if juxtaposition implied a relation, occur at the middle and the end of the list, respectively. So clearly, translating arsenokotai as 'sodomites' simply because it's next to what is believed to be male prostitutes is not logical.

Furthermore, when arsenokotai appears in other Greek texts, it's used in the context of exploitation. So it's likely that what the Bible passage is opposed to is using sex - heterosexual or homosexual - for exploitation, rather than being opposed to homosexual sex. Again, it's usually translated as being against homosexual sex because of how malakoi is translated.

So what we can gather from the Corinthians passage is that sex that is coerced or purchased is wrong, which clearly does not apply to all homosexual acts.

The Timothy passage is similar: a laundry list of people who won't make it into heaven. Again, sodomites is translated from arsenokotai, and is probably referring to those who use sex to exploit.

So, as such, I don't think it is logical or valid to invoke any of these three passages in order to condemn homosexuality.

Looking at the Old Testament:
Warnings against homosexuality are found in Lev 18:22, 20:13 in the Holiness Code. The deal with homosexuality being condemned was that it was thought that homosexual sex made men infertile, so therefore it threatened procreation, which was clearly important at the time when the Jews were merely a tribe and not an established people.

In addition, homosexual sex is condemned along with eating pork, cursing your parents, consulting mediums or wizards, or having sex with a woman while she was on her period. Christians today clearly don't live by the old Jewish holiness code, so it is wrong and illogical to selectively condemn and discriminate against homosexuality while ignoring other things in the Holiness Code.